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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23974117">if the silence takes you, then i hope it takes me too</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightblaze/pseuds/Nightblaze'>Nightblaze</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>monsterhunter au [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>We Are The Tigers - Allen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, But Not For Long!, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, Riley POV, kairo is only past, mattie doesnt get framed in this because its my fic and i make the rules</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:15:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,402</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23974117</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightblaze/pseuds/Nightblaze</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley's only trying to make things right, but maybe opening an actual portal to Hell isn't the best answer.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Annleigh/Clark (We Are The Tigers), Cairo/Kate (We Are The Tigers), Cairo/Riley (We Are The Tigers), Kate/Eva Sanchez (We Are The Tigers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>monsterhunter au [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822732</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this is 100% self indulgence...its my au i can do whatever i want. we're going with a tentative 6 chapters here but that might change so watch out!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Riley had been thinking about doing this for a long time, never too seriously. But if it wasn't serious, why had she been researching effective ways to do it? Why had she rehearsed her lies? Rehearsed what she could say to the team to be on their side?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then Chess walked in with Kate, a cloudy look in her eyes, and Farrah almost fell down the stairs and her words slurred together. And then Kate and Farrah got into a fight, and everyone was storming out of the basement… The problem was, Riley </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew </span>
  </em>
  <span>they could be great. She knew that if she could just… cut out the tumor, so to speak, the team would thrive. So she made an executive decision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Washing the blood off the knife was therapeutic. Chess had screamed so loud that Riley had to twist the knife deeper to get her to shut the fuck up. The look on her face had been upsetting, to put it lightly, but Riley was doing it for the greater good of the team, so she shouldered it and moved on. Farrah was easier, her reactions slowed from intoxication, but also more difficult because where Chess had been confused and betrayed, Farrah was </span>
  <em>
    <span>afraid</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Farrah looked up at her, down at the knife, and back up again and backed up into the shower and called for help and shrieked loud enough that Riley was shocked nobody came running. Part of her felt bad, again. But a larger and much more terrifying part of her just felt powerful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley set the knife back into its spot and scrubbed her hands clean, and as the red disappeared down the drain, so did her guilt. This was for the best.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The police came, and searched the house for hours. Mattie got a light slap on the wrist for drinking. Nobody said anything; Cairo had convinced everyone to keep their mouths shut. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve all been suspicious as hell tonight,” Cairo had said and then called them all out for it. Riley almost felt bad when Cairo insisted that it wasn’t any of them, and she truly wondered who the hell had killed Clark, but she was more than happy to play along with the plan. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It was for the best.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>At least, that’s what she had thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When school started the next week, Kate and Annleigh were nowhere to be seen. The Tigers groupchat had been silent. Riley sat through her classes, taking notes diligently and studying every moment she wasn’t thinking about the team, and waited.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Kate returned to school, there were dark bags under her eyes. She walked sluggishly, like there were weights chained to her ankles. Riley had Spanish with her—used to have it with Chess, too—and watched her closely for the first couple days. Kate didn’t touch any of the assignments Señor Guerrero passed out. Most days she didn’t even get out a pencil. She would just sit there and stare at the wall, or at the empty seat next to her until the bell rang.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley tried to approach her soon after that, to offer some words of support. The sooner everyone could get over it, the sooner they could start to practice again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kate! I wanted to talk to you,” Riley started as she quickly paced over to her. “I know it’s been a rough couple of weeks—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Riley. Please, save it,” Kate replied in a tired voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pressed on anyway. “I wanted to offer some sup—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut </span>
  <em>
    <span>up.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley pursed her lips. “You know, Kate, I think you would feel a lot better if you could just look on the bright side of all of this.” Kate, who had begun to walk away, suddenly whipped around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The </span>
  <em>
    <span>bright side? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Of my best friend </span>
  <em>
    <span>dying?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, when you put it like that…” Riley’s conviction only faltered for a moment, but Kate took it in stride.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Spare me from your shitty inspirational quotes, Riley,” she snapped. Riley glanced over at Señor Guerrero for help but he was very wrapped up in grading his papers and trying his very best not to get involved. “Just shut the fuck up and stay the hell out of my way.” Riley opened her mouth to reply, but Kate was already leaving again. This was the first time Riley realized that maybe, just maybe she had made a bad call.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annleigh was almost the complete opposite of Kate. Riley had the same lunch bell as her, although she always sat with Cairo and some other girls, and Annleigh had always sat with Clark and some other people who were part of her acapella group. From what Riley saw of her, she was constantly smiling and reassuring everyone that she was doing okay, that she knew God had a plan and trusted that He would guide her through it, or something along those lines. Riley hadn’t believed in God for a long time, but if Annleigh’s faith was making her feel okay and getting her to see that things were </span>
  <em>
    <span>better </span>
  </em>
  <span>now, then Riley was overjoyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took her almost two months to see that Annleigh was anything but okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley had stayed after school to talk to the principal about changing the school’s mascot, or at least the cheer team’s, in order to have a fresh start. She’d been shot down and now was walking through the empty halls to go to her locker and then out to her car. She wasn’t expecting to hear quiet sobs coming from the girl’s bathroom on the third floor. It was unmistakably Annleigh; Riley had listened to her cry that night in her basement for quite a while. So, Riley stepped into the bathroom and called out, “Annleigh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crying stopped immediately. “Riley?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay?” Riley asked, taking a step towards the locked stall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, of course! Yeah.” Annleigh’s voice was scratchy and wet. She had never been a good liar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Are you sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Riley, please don’t ask me again,” Annleigh whispered and her voice cracked. Riley frowned. Annleigh hated Farrah, she was always having to worry about her, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure </span>
  </em>
  <span>whatever happened to Clark sucked, but she had been fine for weeks now! “Can you, um, could you… not tell anyone about this?” Annleigh sniffled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Okay.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She drove home in silence, trying to figure it out. It took her a disappointing amount of time to realize that Annleigh had been pretending to be okay the entire time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A couple of weeks later, Riley and Cairo were hanging out in Cairo’s room. Cairo hadn’t come over to Riley’s house since the “sleepover from hell” as Cairo had taken to calling it, on the rare occasion that they talked about it. Frankly, Riley was okay with that. Her parents were always kind of assholes to Cairo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In reality, they were supposed to be doing homework, but Cairo was scrolling through Instagram and Riley was watching a video of the Jackson High Jaguars from last year. It was Friday, so it wasn’t like they were in a rush to get everything done, although Riley knew if they were at her house, her parents would absolutely be making sure she and Cairo were working.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have you heard anything from Kate recently?” Cairo asked. She had been opening her mouth like she was about to say something and then closing it for the last several minutes. Riley pushed the screen of her laptop down halfway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s in my Spanish class, but no, she hasn’t been talking to me. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just... worried about her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley laughed. Cairo, worrying about Kate? Sure. “What, do you miss her trying to pick fights with you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo shook her head and pursed her lips. “I guess so.” Riley fell silent. That wasn’t the answer she had been expecting. She went to open her laptop up but stopped when Cairo went on. “It’s just, so fucked, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley looked down. “I know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s like, I try to imagine losing you like that and it’s terrifying. And I don’t know how in hell Annleigh is coping. Like, I know I call her a brat all the time, but if something happened to Lena I’d probably lose it. The same with Brad.” Cairo’s younger sister </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>annoying, Cairo was right about that, but she was still a constant in both of their lives. Riley couldn’t find the same bright side to keeping Cairo’s boyfriend around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were the beginnings of some complete realization taking form in the back of Riley’s mind. That maybe she’d been wrong about all of this. But she shoved the thought down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean…” Riley paused and reconsidered what she was about to say, but Cairo was looking at her expectantly and so she continued, “I’m kind of surprised it’s affected you very much. You hated Chess and Farrah. And they were the reasons everyone on our team hated each other… Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo’s face quickly went from shock into anger. “Riley, how the hell can you say that?” she snapped. “Yeah, I hated them, but I didn’t want to see them </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead. </span>
  </em>
  <span>I’ve known Chess since preschool, and Farrah was </span>
  <em>
    <span>fifteen! </span>
  </em>
  <span>Annleigh basically turned off all her emotions except happy, and Kate’s not answering my—</span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone’s </span>
  </em>
  <span>texts and calls, she’s practically a zombie. Nothing about this is a blessing!” Riley wanted to curl in on herself and disappear. “You can’t say shit like that in front of anyone on the team, okay?” Cairo suddenly insisted. “They’ll think you did something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley shook her head. “Cairo, I would never. You know me.” The weight of the lie was crushing on her shoulders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>know you,” Cairo repeated. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>They </span>
  </em>
  <span>don’t. The police don’t. They’re still looking for the killer and at this point they’re under enough pressure that they’ll take any suspect.” Riley stared into Cairo’s eyes, at the fear she saw there, and hoped that she couldn’t see through Riley’s lies. If anyone could, it was Cairo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, I won’t say that again,” Riley said softly and Cairo’s whole body relaxed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rest of the night, all she could do was try to convince herself that she had truly made the right choice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley stopped answering Cairo’s texts soon after that. It only took a few weeks more for Cairo to stop sending them. It hurt Riley, more than she thought it would, but she couldn’t get caught and Cairo could see through her too much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t know what would be worse: going to prison, or Cairo hating her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley watched as everyone on the team still alive kept falling apart around her. It was early in November when it all came together, for better or for worse. She had been making a deal with the principal about reorganizing the cheer team, having Eva transfer to Giles Corey, getting Reese out of the tiger suit and onto the team, and they’d finally worked it all out. Riley was in high spirits, and hopeful that just maybe they could still go to regionals this year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned a corner and stumbled backward, barely catching herself. “Kate? Are you okay?” Riley asked. The junior’s eyes were wet, her face red and blotchy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just peachy,” Kate said in a cold tone as she crossed her arms tightly. “Why don’t you go tell Cairo to leave me the fuck alone? Maybe she’ll listen to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What did she…” Riley started, but Kate was already storming off down the hall. She watched her, contemplated going after her, and decided against it. She turned to keep walking up to her locker and froze when she saw Cairo looking back at her. “Cai, what happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was trying to apologize,” she answered flatly, staring after Kate, but Riley knew her well. She could hear the slight wavering in her voice, a telltale sign she was upset.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For what?” Riley asked, taking a step closer, which seemed to shake Cairo out of her daze. She scoffed and shook her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t pretend like you care.” She didn’t even look at Riley as she walked by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Riley was angry, or sad, or feeling something terrible that she couldn’t force away, she would go to Cairo. Cairo understood her. But Cairo wasn’t an option. So Riley got in her car and just drove. Thank God her parents were out of town again—they would tear her apart when she got home late, otherwise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She got on the highway and drove until she saw a billboard advertising some new antique shop. Riley couldn’t describe it in words, but it felt like she had to go there. There was something heavy and cold in the air around her and without thinking she took the next exit. Sitting in the parking lot, the chill turned into fire, and Riley had been thinking about turning around and going home but there was something calling to her inside that store and it would not be ignored. She stepped out of the car.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Entering the antique store, Riley was greeted with a musty smell and an elderly woman’s cheery voice. “Welcome! Anything you’re looking for in particular?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just looking around,” Riley replied, observing the trinkets and oddities that decorated the interior of the building. She wandered around, peering at the jewelry and figurines, the teacups and paintings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then she saw the book.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like electricity. Riley made a beeline for the thick tome. Her heart pounded in her ears as she drew closer, something static buzzing on her fingertips. Instinctively, she reached out and opened the book and stared at the page that had revealed itself to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A spell. A ritual. To bring back the dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How much for this?” Riley asked the old woman in a shaky voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That?” The woman looked down at the dusty book and then up at Riley’s face. “Are you sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Riley brought the book with her up to the counter where the woman sat. “But I need it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her face was sad, and understanding. Her eyes bored deep into Riley’s soul. It was haunting. “Five dollars and fifty cents.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Deal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley hadn’t ever thought of something like this before, and she wasn’t very serious about it. But if she wasn’t serious, would the five dollars and fifty cents have been worth it? Would she have stared at the book on her nightstand for hours, just contemplating it, almost every night? Would she have collected all the components that the ritual called for and hidden them in her room?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then, just like before, everything fell apart.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>act 2, but with significantly more necromancy</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>do you guys ever realize how niche the fic you're writing is and then you post more anyway? well.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Convincing everybody to come back to Riley’s house for another sleepover was certainly a challenge. Riley wasn’t sure if anyone would actually show up until she peered out the window and saw the girls talking out on her lawn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey guys, welcome back!” she greeted as she opened the door, trying to diffuse any situation that was certain to arise whenever this group of people gathered. Cairo was staring at her and then looking over at Eva with confusion on her face. “Eva, so glad you could make it! Um, if you guys want to head down the basement, we will get started in just a sec.” Riley gave them her best smile as Annleigh scoffed and pushed by her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough, it was just her and Cairo left outside. Riley turned to follow Kate through the door, hoping that Cairo wouldn’t start anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Looked like that wasn’t happening. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, Cairo,” Riley said through gritted teeth. They hadn’t spoken since that day in the hallway, although Cairo had sent her a few texts trying to check in on her. Once again, she’d given up after about a week. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice move with your…” Cairo gestured towards the door. “New best friend.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The school board worked it out,” Riley replied honestly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo raised her eyebrows. “And she can pay tuition?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She… got a scholarship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh. That’s a big scholarship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley shook out her negativity. This was supposed to be a new start. This was going to be the beginnings of a great team, she had convinced herself, although a guilty and horrified part of her brain was screaming at her to confess, apologize, make it right. “Look, whatever you’re thinking, shut it down. She wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t asked.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, so you answer </span>
  <em>
    <span>someone’s </span>
  </em>
  <span>texts,” Cairo snapped. Riley swore inwardly and walked into the house as if she could walk away from Cairo’s anger. Not talking to Cairo was painful, probably one of the hardest things she had ever had to do. “Maybe if I was the highest ranked flier in all the state, I’d be worthy of your attention.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I am sorry I have not been a very good friend in the past few months, but!” Riley turned to face her with a smile plastered on her face. Did she really think Riley wasn’t speaking with her because she wasn’t good enough? “I have been listening to a lot of Ted Talks on positive thinking and crisis management, and I think I’m ready to guide us forward.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By returning to the scene of the crime?” Cairo asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If I have to live here, I think you can make it through one afternoon!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not historically!” Cairo countered. Riley pursed her lips. Unless the person who killed Clark was going to do something, nobody was going to die tonight. If things went south, Riley had an entirely different plan. A chill passed through her at the mere thought of the book, sitting on her nightstand, waiting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one </span>
  <em>
    <span>had </span>
  </em>
  <span>to come here today. But everyone chose to, I think, because we all want to move on! We </span>
  <em>
    <span>can </span>
  </em>
  <span>embrace this tragedy and come back, stronger than before.” Just like she had meant them to. Just like it was supposed to be. “Like… like a phoenix, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phoenixes! They rise from the ashes into something majestic and beautiful!” Riley was smiling widely although Cairo rolled her eyes at her. “This is our year, Cai, I can feel it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it was going fine. Riley and Cairo eventually made their way downstairs, Riley welcomed Eva and Reese to the team, and welcomed Mattie for a second time. Then Kate had to speak up and bring up all the terrible things that had happened at the sleepover. All the </span>
  <em>
    <span>necessary </span>
  </em>
  <span>things, Riley corrected herself, but every day that felt less and less true.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What good memories do you have of Chess and Farrah?” Kate was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I knew those girls,” Riley responded and clutched her clipboard to her chest. This was a different Kate than the one she had spoken with at school. She was pissed, always pissed, but now it was a cool and collected anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room was tense and silent until Eva popped in. “Hey, does anyone have a tampon?” Riley breathed a sigh of relief. She lectured the team about their privileges and then quickly transitioned into her idea for the pep rally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What, no bonding this time? Ugh, it went so well before!” Kate mocked from her seat across the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley tried to relax but it didn’t work. “Kate. Please. I have the floor.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi everyone, I’m Kate, the candles are the dead ones, and we all lied to the police!” Kate continued with a faux grin on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my God, why are you even here?!” Cairo exclaimed. She and Kate shared a look that even Riley couldn’t decipher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because </span>
  <em>
    <span>everyone </span>
  </em>
  <span>in this room knows that someone in here killed Chess and Farrah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was never one of us!” Cairo said, exasperated. “And Eva doesn’t need to know what we said or </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>say to the cops.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kate laughed without humor and waved over at Eva, standing there awkwardly. “Well she’s on the team now, she should know what she signed up for.” Riley gave up at this point. She sat on the couch and put her head in her hands. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, she’d taken out the problem. How was it all falling apart again so quickly? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were on my side.” At this point Cairo and Kate were standing off against each other. Everyone else just watched them with varying degrees of discomfort. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>scared. </span>
  </em>
  <span>My best friend had just been </span>
  <em>
    <span>murdered.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Riley flashed back to the terror on Farrah’s face and took a deep breath to remain calm. She focused on her breathing and tuned out the voices. If she broke now, she would spill everything, she knew she would. After a moment, she opened her eyes again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“God, </span>
  <em>
    <span>why </span>
  </em>
  <span>are you so obsessed with Chess and me?” Kate said as she pushed passed Cairo and went towards the center of the room. “I’m sure it sucks to have never had a genuine relationship in your life.” Riley glanced between them and wondered briefly if she had imagined the hurt on Cairo’s face. “But I won’t let you ruin what’s left of mine.” Riley shook her head and then Eva was saying something about leaving and she shot up from the couch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no, no! We just need to focus!” she insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great,” Kate said as she picked up her phone. “So I am going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>focus </span>
  </em>
  <span>on calling the cops and telling them the truth like we should’ve done in the first place!” She turned around when she reached the door and spat out, “Unless, you know, one of you wants to kill me first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It crossed Riley’s mind for a split second and she thought of the knife she had hidden in her jacket, but it was clear now. She couldn’t keep telling herself that she’d done the right thing when everything was so wrong. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s not going to do anything, she’s just upset,” Cairo was telling her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what if she does?” Riley snapped back and stormed up the stairs. Cairo followed her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Riley!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She turned towards her. “Maybe you’re right Cai, maybe it’s all going to fall apart no matter what I do. Are you happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Cairo stepped towards her. “No. I wanted to see if you were okay. Jesus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So weeks of silence and now you want to see if I’m okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was never my choice,” Cairo said sharply. “You did that to us.” She was right and Riley couldn’t find a way to justify it other than telling her the truth, so she didn’t say anything at all. “And I don’t know why you did, and I’m worried, and I just want to help you,” she continued in a less accusatory tone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley set her jaw. “Right now it would be really helpful if you could just leave me alone.” The book was upstairs and there was that cold, static electricity buzzing inside her and she needed to do it now or she wouldn’t ever have the nerve again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo shook her head. “Whatever, Riley.” And then she turned back towards the basement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As soon as she was gone, Riley took off up the stairs and grabbed the book in her room. She had bookmarked the page, although she knew she would instinctively flip it open to the right one even without it. She moved swiftly, grabbing the little red gemstone, the ashes, the lizard scales and the pine twigs she had hidden in a box underneath her bed. The words were nonsense to her, something in Greek she had used Google Translate to memorize how to pronounce, and she spoke them in the rhythm indicated on the old paper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The materials she held in her hands began to warm as she recited the words, and then they combusted. The fire was a deep, mesmerizing red, occasionally flickering with a sharp yellow, and then Riley’s hands were on fire but she wasn’t burning. There was a rumble in the air, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It turned into an ear-splitting roar as even the small gem burned away. Riley moved her hands apart and in the space between them, she stared into a darkness that she could’ve swore was staring back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley pulled the darkness farther and it detached from her body, taking the red flames on her hands with it. It grew in size until it towered over Riley and the roar surrounding her reached its peak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give them back,” she told the void before her. She pictured Chess, cheering beside her at a game against Cobalt Prep where their football team had managed to make a single field goal. She thought of Farrah last year at the sleepover, drawing a dick on Kimberly’s forehead as she slept with a stupid grin on her face. Clark, too, the sweet boy who had never judged anyone and had remembered Riley’s birthday from an offhand conversation they had one time. “Give them back!” she screamed this time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Riley, what the hell is going on?!” Cairo was in the doorway. Riley could see the rest of the team appearing from behind her. Similar shouts of concern echoed hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then the ghosts appeared. Transparent, vaguely colored forms, one after the other thrown out of the portal. Riley gasped in relief as they took actual shapes. It was them and they looked every bit as confused as the living observing them did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was when the opening was supposed to close, fold in on itself until it simply ceased to exist. But something was wrong. It started to collapse, just like it should have, and then there was a tear. A sudden jagged edge protruding from the otherwise stable circle. And then another. And then the first creature emerged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was humanoid, but it was silver and rotting away and certainly not actually a person, and somewhere around six feet tall. The being stumbled out, slowly at first, and then it glared up with burning red eyes and unleashed a horrible shriek as it lunged for Riley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Riley was quicker. She grabbed the knife hidden in her inner coat pocket and slashed it across the throat of the creature as it reached out to grab her. What could only be described as pandemonium ensued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More of these monsters and strange entities began pouring out the portal, and while most surged towards the window and broke the glass to crawl out, some stalked towards Riley and the team.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It all passed by in a blur; Riley was fighting off small, batlike creatures, slicing at them wildly with the knife as she tried to reach for the book. Cairo had remembered where Riley’s parents kept their pistol and was shooting at what looked like a giant cat but with way too many teeth and way too many legs. Reese was shielding Mattie from little, foot-tall humanoids as they rushed for the windows and down the hall. Kate was fighting her way towards Chess, and Annleigh was behind her, standing transfixed.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Stupid fucking book</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Riley swore in her head as she cut the last bat of the swarm out of the air. There was no strange feeling, no sudden instinct of where to turn. She looked wildly around the room, at the team she was trying so desperately to fix, at the disbelieving tears on Annleigh’s face and the hope on Kate’s, and opened the book, and there it was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A mirror - there was a handheld mirror somewhere in here, Riley knew. She ignored the inhuman screaming and panicked shouts from her friends as she searched through her make up until she found the eyeshadow palette with a mirror on the lid. She took her knife, wiped off the black sludge from fighting the monsters, and sliced open her own palm, which she then pressed against the mirror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off!” she cried and held up the small blood-smeared mirror to the endless void. And just like that, the portal warped and fell inward onto itself, leaving nothing behind but an uneasy feeling in the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Glancing around now, there were no monsters in the room. They’d all fled. Even the first creature that had crumpled onto the floor when Riley had cut it had somehow gotten up and left. The entire team stood there wordlessly and looked at each other, at Riley’s bleeding hand, the ghosts of their dead friends, the broken windows and the back at each other. It was the apparition of Chess that broke the silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Riley, what the fuck did you do?”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>you know, they should really make a guide for what to do after you bring back the people you murdered from the dead and consequently open a portal to hell. it would save riley a lot of trouble.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The air was still for several seconds, and then erupted into noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell was that—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it really—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How are you—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley was breathing heavy and sat down on the hardwood floor of her bedroom. She clutched the cut on her palm and stared up at Chess, Farrah and Clark. It was incredibly strange. They looked just like they had the night that they had died, although their wounds and the blood was gone. They were slightly transparent. Peering through their bodies was like looking through stained glass, and the colors of their skin and clothes were grayed and lifeless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chess stared back down at Riley with a fire in her eyes, and repeated, “What did you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just wanted…” She glanced around the room. All eyes flicked over to her. Farrah’s hand went to her stomach, almost defensively. Riley decided not to notice it. “Everyone was so screwed up without you guys. I wanted to bring you all back. I didn’t actually think it would work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But it did.” Kate’s voice was meek and disbelieving and the room fell into chaos again. Riley sighed in relief as Chess turned away from her and wrapped Kate in a big hug. Clark was wrapping his arms around Annleigh from behind, and Farrah took her hand and held it tightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were supposed to, you know, have real bodies,” Riley continued after a moment. “I don’t know why it didn’t work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was Clark, surprisingly, who spoke up. “Well, my body is ashes right now. Maybe that’s it. Although I’m not the witchcraft expert.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Almost indignantly, Riley said, “It’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>witchcraft—”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude, you just raised people from the dead, I’m pretty sure that’s witchcraft,” Eva pointed out from where she, Reese and Mattie were standing closer to the doorway. Reese was almost sickly pale and looking at Clark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room fell silent once again as those words sunk in. They were phantasmal, but it was true. Riley had brought them back from the dead. And now they would be able to tell everyone what she had done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, tonight has been interesting,” Riley started talking rapidly. “Why don’t we all head home and we can sort this out tomorrow?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a daze, everybody agreed, although Riley didn’t miss the cold glare that Chess and Farrah gave her on the way out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, come on, let’s get you patched up,” Cairo said as she helped Riley off of the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t have to help me,” Riley insisted. “I said some pretty shitty things to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you did. An apology would be nice but I’m not gonna let you walk around with a massive fucking cut on your hand.” Riley knew there was no fighting with Cairo on some things, and this was one of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” she murmured and before she knew it, she was spinning another lie. “I was just really not feeling well for the last few weeks and I didn’t want to bother you with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“God, you’re so stupid,” Cairo replied easily as she began to rummage through Riley’s kitchen drawers for the first aid kid. “You’re never bothering me, okay? You don’t have to suffer alone. And I shouldn’t have to suffer alone either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” Riley said again numbly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’ll be okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Cairo wrapped her hand with a bandage, Riley wondered how many more lies she would have to tell, and how long it would take for them all to fall apart. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The smart thing to do would be to tell Cairo to go home like the rest of the team. If Cairo started asking too many questions, Riley wouldn’t be able to stand her ground for long. But as all the weight of her choices began to press down on her shoulders, she found that she couldn’t bear to be alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It only took a day for the first report of some unnatural occurrence to roll in. An old man was found all but torn to shreds on the side of the highway. Riley heard that the official report was a coyote attack, but coyotes didn’t usually completely disembowel and dismember its prey. There was a brief conversation about this in the Tigers groupchat, but nothing of significance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The following night, Riley woke up freezing. The clock on her nightstand told her it was three in the morning. Blankets were piled high over her body—she could never sleep with just one, even in the summer—and yet, still, she felt like she was sleeping in an ice bath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat up and slowly her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. Three ghastly figures were standing at the foot of her bed, and thank God that her parents were out of town, because Riley screamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus, take a chill pill, would you? We aren’t here to kill you,” Farrah said and rolled her eyes. “Unlike some people, we’re not big on the murder train.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chess scoffed. “You’re not actually going to try to defend yourself, are you?” Riley bit back her words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, actually, I want to hear it,” Farrah cut in. “Clark is dead because of some stupid accident—” Clark waved at her halfheartedly. Riley waved back. Chess glared at the both of them. “Which is still kind of your fault cause he wouldn’t be dead if I wasn’t dead—but me and Chess get the whole first-degree murder treatment. What’s up with that? Getting rid of the problems?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, yes,” Riley said honestly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chess raised her eyebrows. “You’re joking, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. Things always went to shit during practice and games and competitions because of you two. You don’t just let a tumor keep growing, right? You cut it out.” As she spoke, Riley was filled with conviction again, like she had done a good thing. As soon as it came, though, she pushed it away. She’d fucked up and then opened a gate to Hell to undo it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck </span>
  </em>
  <span>you,” Farrah snapped. “We’re going to tell the others what happened after that, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Riley sat up straighter. “No, don’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why the hell not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clark spoke up for the first time. “Nobody is doing too hot right now. This might tear them apart for good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As long as she’s rotting in prison, I’m okay with that,” Farrah muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not,” Chess countered. Clark nodded in agreement. Riley glanced between them, bewildered. Were they actually going to agree to keep her killings secret?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Farrah shook her head. “You’re both crazy.” She stared Riley down for several seconds and all Riley could see was her and Chess’s horrified faces as she plunged the knife into their guts. Riley looked away. “Guess we’ll all be accomplices.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think they can try ghosts,” Riley offered meekly. Farrah gave her a middle finger in response. That was fair enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next instance of something supernatural came a couple days later. Riley was watching Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again with Cairo, letting the upbeat music and bright colors take her mind off of the necromancy mess for just a couple hours. Cairo was scrolling on her phone next to her when she let out a soft gasp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Riley asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Some woman was found with her head cut off and chunks of her body missing,” Cairo said, her eyes scanning over her screen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus,” Riley turned her attention back towards the screen. It only took a couple of minutes for both of their phones to buzz with a text from the groupchat.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Eva: Do you think it has something to do with those monsters? The things that we had to fight off?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Nobody responded to Eva, but there was no other explanation. No animals went out of their way to attack like this and no person could tear somebody apart that easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The remainder of the movie was spent in a chilly silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At lunch the next day, Cairo sat next to Riley with a deep sigh. “I think I’m going to break up with Brad,” she said in place of a greeting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley jumped. She had been lost in thought about Farrah and Chess holding her whole life in their ghostly hands, about who might’ve killed Clark, about the creatures that were now wandering the streets and how all of it was her fault. It took her a moment to spin her mind around back towards non-murderous, non-necromantic, regular high school things like relationship drama.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” she asked once she’d collected her thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Cairo confessed as she picked at the broccoli on her tray with a fork. “I guess he just doesn’t get the whole, ‘three people were murdered and I was there to see their dead bodies’ thing. And honestly, he’s a bit of a dick.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley frowned. There was a lot to unpack there and she wasn’t sure she had time to unpack it because she </span>
  <em>
    <span>also </span>
  </em>
  <span>suddenly had to think about why she felt victorious about Cairo no longer having a boyfriend. “Well, do it, then. He kind of stinks, anyway. Literally, I don’t think he wears deodorant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Cairo laughed. “God, you’re right. I’ll talk to him later.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The illusion of regular high school things was broken when Kate approached the lunch table. “Hey, meet me out behind the bleachers after school, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Careful, Kate, people will think you’re making moves on me,” Cairo said dryly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kate scoffed and crossed her arms. “God, you’re insufferable.” She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. “Listen, Mr. Jacobs was found this morning with his heart torn out. Like, ripped-out-while-it-was-still-beating kind of torn out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley froze and she felt Cairo do the same beside her. Mr. Jacobs was an older man who had been teaching English at Giles Corey for decades. He was the type of teacher who everybody trusted and counted on to brighten their days and offer them cheesy but good advice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Cairo breathed. Kate nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’ll be there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Riley answered for both of them. Kate gave them a tight smile before walking away. Riley pushed her lunch tray away from her. Suddenly she wasn’t hungry anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Riley made her way past the football field and behind the bleachers, she found the ghosts, Annleigh and Kate waiting there already.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You </span>
  </em>
  <span>went to </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hell?” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Kate was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if it was actually, like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Hell </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hell, but from all the fire and tortured souls, yeah, I’m pretty sure I was in Hell,” Chess replied. “Ever since I got back here it’s been hard to remember.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know, it was really less burning and damnation and more of just a sulfur-smelling nightmare,” Farrah added. “But it’s all... fuzzy. Hey Clark, you remember anything about Heaven?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clark shrugged. “It was nice. The food was good. That’s all that’s clear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe my best friend got murdered and brought back as a ghost and she can’t even tell me what’s in the afterlife,” Kate complained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Over spring break I’ll…” Chess trailed off and her smile fell as her eyes met Riley’s. “Give you a grand tour,” she finished in monotone. Farrah rolled her eyes and staunchly ignored Riley. Clark gave her another weak wave. The sudden silence was unbearable, but the rest of the team showed up soon enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve all heard about Mr. Jacobs, right?” Kate started.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who?” Mattie asked. The group, minus Mattie and Eva, shared a collective glance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was a nice teacher. Just a nice guy in general, really,” Annleigh said when nobody else spoke up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kate waved it away. “He was great, but the point is—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Reese interrupted, “You can’t just skip over Mr. Jacobs like that, it’s—”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The point is,” Kate said again, “We’re the only ones who know what’s really going on. I just think maybe we should make a plan of action. What’re we going to do about it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh,” Cairo scoffed. “Nothing. It’s not our problem.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not your problem until something goes after Riley, right?” Kate countered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley pursed her lips. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>all her fault. No murders, no reason to bring back the dead. No bringing back the dead, no monsters crawling out of Hell. It felt wrong to sit back and let all the choices she made ruin even more people’s lives.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kate’s right,” Riley said. Cairo looked at her incredulously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can’t just go to the police?” Annleigh suggested. “Let them take care of it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Riley and Reese said forcefully at the same time. Riley met Reese’s gaze and found her own confused expression mirrored back. Interesting, Riley thought, and a theory began to form in her mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Without any evidence?” Eva shook her head. “They’d probably say you’re all traumatized and send you on your way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about weapons?” Cairo tried to dissuade. “A base of operations to store the weapons? How about the fact that we don’t even know what we’re up against?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My brother owns a gun shop,” Kate shot back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell </span>
  </em>
  <span>does your brother own a gun shop?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kate shrugged. “Conservative families breed gun fanatics, car fanatics, and lesbians. He's the gun fanatic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My family owns some land,” Mattie began. “There’s an old shack that nobody uses out there. Out of the way but not in the middle of nowhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Riley was filled with equal parts anticipation and apprehension as it all began to fall into place. “And I have the book. It has to have more information." </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good God, are we actually doing this?” Cairo stressed. Nobody spoke up. Kate started to grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re doing this.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>after finishing this fic (eventually lmao), i might make another that would just be oneshots from this universe, cause this one focuses so much on Riley. thoughts??? would yall be interested?</p><p>as always, hmu @mightymightytigers on tumblr if you want to send me prompts or asks, or if you just want to chat!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>things get better, and then they get so much worse.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Of course, it wasn’t quite as easy as </span>
  <em>
    <span>okay, we’re doing this.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While Riley had expected to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>some </span>
  </em>
  <span>research before trying to track down a monster, she hadn’t quite expected that it would mean hours reading through the tome that had helped her reanimate the dead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At first, Riley had tried to get Cairo to help her do it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riley, I really don’t want to deal with the whole monsterhunting thing more than I have to,” she had said. “I’ll help you guys, but I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>going to sit in your room reading a dusty-ass book.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was how Riley ended up in her room reading a dusty-ass book with Kate and Eva instead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The book was full of information, sure, but most of it was incomprehensible. When the ink wasn’t smudged, it was usually in Latin or Greek or glyphs that didn’t match up with any writing system they could think of. When it was translatable, it felt like nonsense. It had writings about banishing entities back to Hell (useful) as well as how to ritually disembowel a goat (not as useful), among other things. Riley was in charge of taking notes on the useful information in a much more manageable notebook.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, look at this!” Eva pointed out. “Dude, this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>literally </span>
  </em>
  <span>just Edward Scissorhands.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was the other thing. The book did not skimp out on pictures.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley peered over Eva’s shoulder, abandoning the page she’d been trying to translate. The ghoul was a spindly creature draped in tattered brown cloth with long bladed fingers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It had been hard to stop referring to Eva as Eva Sanchez in her head when they’d first met; she’d held her as an idol for so long that she didn’t really seem like a real person. Sometimes Riley would inwardly fangirl for a moment: </span>
  <em>
    <span>Eva Sanchez </span>
  </em>
  <span>was on </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>cheer squad. Then the rest of reality would set in, and Riley would realize the absolute mess that she pulled Eva into - murders and ghosts and monsters. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Sorry, Eva,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Riley thought as she inwardly cringed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If Edward was, like, the Grim Reaper. It doesn’t even have a face,” Kate commented. Eva smiled at her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can you imagine that plot twist? That would’ve been so sick.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? No, if Edward had been Death itself, it would’ve been contradicting the whole movie’s point!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Didn’t take you as such a diehard Scissorhands fan.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley was not used to being the third wheel like this, but she had a feeling she would be by the end of the day. “What’s its name?” she asked. Both Kate and Eva turned towards her in tandem, seemingly shocked that she still existed, and their faces were tinged with red.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If there was one, just one good thing that came from the murders, it was Kate and Eva meeting each other. Not that it was much justification for her actions.</span>
</p>
<p><span>“Right, it’s in Latin… Oh my God, it’s</span> <span>called the Hand of Swords,” Eva said.</span></p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re joking!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wish!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley dutifully wrote the name down in her notebook, and then </span>
  <em>
    <span>Edward Scissorhands </span>
  </em>
  <span>next to it in parentheses.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their first battle didn’t go well, to say the least.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It went like this: Mattie had heard her parents talking about some very weird coyotes prowling around the elementary school. So, they gathered after sundown in the nearby woods, armed with blades bought at the Renaissance festival in years prior, two pistols, Riley’s notes and a whole lot of nervous energy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>So</span>
  </em>
  <span> much nervous energy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, I don’t want to die again,” Farrah whined.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re not going to die again!” Annleigh hissed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Reese chimed in with “How do you kill a ghost, anyway?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well,” Riley started, because it was really quite simple—</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Farrah stopped her with a cold glare.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we have any type of game plan?” Cairo asked and fiddled with a pistol.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just keep the monsters at bay and weaken them so Riley can do her magic bullshit,” Kate said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Banishing ritual,” Eva corrected. Kate shrugged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Great,” Cairo said dryly. “Well, if I don’t get out of here, someone tell my sister she can’t have my room.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, guys?” Mattie pointed out into the trees.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why would you care? You’d be dead,” Kate asked Cairo.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Guys!” Mattie shouted. Riley finally turned her head to where the younger girl was pointing and… oh, fuck!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Three beasts—definitely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>coyotes but might be mistaken for some from a distance—were circling them. Their eyes were bright red, glowing faintly in the dark, and they were making noises not unlike the gurgling of a hungry stomach.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, fuck!” Cairo unknowingly echoed Riley’s thoughts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everything was still for a moment, and then the beasts leapt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley stayed with Cairo, relying on her to keep the creatures back as she fumbled through her notebook. Were these ghosts or demons or devils? The book made clear distinctions between each, though the exact reasons for classifications evaded her, and there were different ways to dispose of each.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do something!” somebody called above the din. People were shouting, crying out, and when she glanced up she saw blurs and blood. A gunshot, the glint of a knife. The baying of the creatures—delighted howls of the hunt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There! She found the words for one of them and began to recite. With the prick of a blade on her palm, the incarnation was complete.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nothing happened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on, Riley,” Cairo pleaded with a mix of impatience and fear as she fired at a beast. She was clutching her shoulder with her left hand and blood was seeping through her fingers. Riley fought the urge to cry out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” Riley whispered and flipped to the next page. Not ghouls, then. Her hand pulsed in pain as the blood continued to spill from her palm, staining parts of the pages red. She was starting to see why that old book of hers was so ragged and hard to read.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The second incantation was shorter and in Greek. Riley fumbled over the syllables, hands shaking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What if this was it? First she kills her teammates, then she unleashes a bunch of monsters onto the town which kill innocent citizens, and now she lets the rest of the squad die on their first attempt at monster hunting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley finished the mantra. The jubilant gurgling of the beasts turned to high-pitched squeals, and then vanished. The silence echoed through the trees. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the cheer squad.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley felt all of the energy leave her body as the creatures disintegrated. It was like she had suddenly ran a marathon after pulling an all-nighter, even though she’d done the least physically taxing part of the fight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is everybody okay?” she asked, words slurring together. The world went sideways as she fell. It all went dark before she hit the ground.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley woke up at the shack on Mattie’s property. While Riley, Eva and Kate had been in charge of research, Reese, Mattie and the ghosts had made the shack into an actual base of operations. Annleigh worked with them and surprisingly also handled getting weapons. Cairo had staunchly remained indifferent to the whole ordeal. Riley hadn’t been to the shack, and was pleasantly surprised by how they’d spruced it up. It was still obviously an old shed in the woods, but in any case, the blankets and freshly painted walls were nice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s not dead!” someone shouted and the noise made her ears ring. Riley blinked a few times; her head was pounding and white spots danced in her vision.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cairo—Riley could tell from the smell of her shampoo—sat down next to her as she sat up. “I swear to God, if you had died out there I would’ve done that necromancy bullshit to bring you back and kill you myself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That feels very inefficient,” Riley murmured and leaned on Cairo’s shoulder. She smiled as Cairo lightly laughed and that was enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>School was very interesting the few days after that. All of them sported bandages, covering up bloody bites and claw marks, and then had to do their best to cover </span>
  <em>
    <span>those </span>
  </em>
  <span>up to avoid unwanted attention.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That being said, late night hunts slowly and surely became their new normal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley got used to losing all her energy to banish the monsters, got used to dodging glares from Farrah and Chess. Got used to their cheer practices turning into sparring sessions and used to the nagging guilt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a strange sort of limbo that Riley existed in. Schoolwork and cheer, and then monster hunting and perfecting her poker face for cops as they continued their investigation and turned up dead end after dead end, just like she had planned they would. She wondered how the families of the murdered took to that news, that after all these weeks there was no more information. Sometimes she thought about turning herself in. She deserved prison—though imagining that made her cringe—and those families deserved closure.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she had a responsibility with the monsterhunting now, right?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley was flipping through TV channels, searching for something interesting to watch while Cairo popped popcorn in her kitchen. Cairo was one of the stabilizing forces in their new hectic life. Movie nights, hanging out like normal, but with someone who understood that everything was so fucked up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s just watch Buzzfeed Unsolved,” Riley suggested from the couch. “I have Hulu.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Now that we know that the ghosts they hunt for could actually exist? Yeah, no thanks,” Cairo said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on, it’ll be funny,” Riley insisted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As the boys started to explain their latest paranormal investigation, it fell uncharacteristically quiet. Riley had noticed it before, but Cairo just seemed deflated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In an effort to liven up the conversation with drama, Riley asked, “Did you hear about Kate and Eva?” They’d actually gotten together a couple of days ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s nice that they found each other. Even if everything else sucks,” Riley continued.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yup, good for them.” Cairo sounded genuinely bitter. Riley furrowed her brow, confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, what’s up with you? Come on.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cairo sighed deeply and turned to look her in the eyes. Riley met her gaze, simultaneously wanting to hold eye contact forever and look away immediately. “You can’t be weird about this, okay?” Riley nodded and desperately tried to figure out what was going on before Cairo told her. What kind of friend was she if she couldn’t do that? “To make a long story short, Kate and I dated for like, a couple months like three years ago. It’s just weird that she’s with somebody and I’m not.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, </span>
  </em>
  <span>this connected a lot of dots. Oh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley didn’t know what she was feeling, but her heart was hammering in her chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh my God, that’s where you always disappeared to that summer!” Riley exclaimed as she shoved the sudden rush of emotions into the farthest depths of her mind. She wasn’t going to unpack what that meant tonight. “So you’re gay?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Bisexual,” Cairo corrected. “Seriously, don’t make a big deal out of it. I just can’t believe </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kate </span>
  </em>
  <span>got another girlfriend before I did.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We could get them to break up,” Riley offered, only mostly joking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riley, not a big deal!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry! Sorry, okay.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For the rest of the night, Riley worked to actively ignore her rapidly beating heart and what it might mean.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Things start to go to shit—more than before, if that’s even possible—about a month later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Reese, duck!” Annleigh shouted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A bird-like creature that reeked of rotten flesh screamed as it missed Reese’s head by an inch. Its cry was cut short as a silver bullet was buried into its throat, and it fell to the ground with an uncomfortably wet squelch. Riley was about to praise Annleigh’s shot as she helped Reese to her feet but another shriek pierced the air and died maybe ten yards away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riley, we’re ready for you,” Kate called. “More ghouls, I guess.” Riley nodded in agreement, flipping to the right page of her notebook even though she could probably recite the incantation by heart at this point.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Reese deposited the ghoul that was assaulting her onto a pile of other ones they’d taken down with a disgusted grimace. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh, they smell like ass,” Eva said and Riley smiled as she read from her notebook, but didn’t stop.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Worse than ass,” Kate gagged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know what you mean, seems just fine to me,” Farrah commented smugly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eva rolled her eyes light-heartedly. “We get it, you’re a ghost, you don’t have to breathe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“One of the few perks of being dead!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley pursed her lips briefly at that and then finished the ritual with a drop of her blood. The ghouls melted into the earth, staining the earth iridescent black until it faded to an unhealthy, but earthly, gray. Immediately her head went fuzzy, and she wobbled, but managed to stay standing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She bandaged the new wound carefully, and then traced the old scars gently. The oldest ones were gone by now, but plenty remained. How often did she have to give up her blood to send these things away? Twice a week, at least. It added up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They all trek over to the shack to properly dress any injuries and to hang out. It’s a bit of a tradition for them to just sit together after a fight, for a little while. Riley liked to know that they’re all alive and well—ghosts excluded—and although she’d gotten better at handling the complete loss of energy that came with the banishing, it was also reassuring to know that if she passed out there were people to take care of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But it was also a painful reminder that if they knew the truth, they would never sit with her like this again. Especially when the conversation took this turn.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like, god, you’d think they would be able to find </span>
  <em>
    <span>something, </span>
  </em>
  <span>you know?” Kate complained.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cairo rolled her eyes from where she sat next to Riley, close enough that when either of them shifted, they brushed arms. “It’s the cops. They’re all idiots.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Still! Honestly, Annleigh and I have made more headway and all we have is her one semester of a forensics class.” Riley’s blood ran cold. They were trying to figure it out themselves? She sent a worried glance over to Chess, Farrah and Clark in order, but they were all staunchly avoiding her gaze. Fair enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Reese sat up much to the annoyance of Mattie, who was halfway through braiding her hair. “Wait, you’re doing your own investigation?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Annleigh jumped to her and Kate’s defense after sending her a </span>
  <em>
    <span>what-the-hell? </span>
  </em>
  <span>glare. Obviously Kate wasn’t supposed to reveal this information. “Well, Kate’s right. It’s not like the police are actually doing anything. And we have ghosts to help us, you know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley swallowed. But the ghosts had said…?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We haven’t been very useful,” Chess said, finally catching Riley’s eye. “It’s all kinda fuzzy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Farrah agreed bitterly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The silence that followed was unbearable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, Clark tried to break the tension with, “You know, I’m kinda glad Reese took me out, or else I’d be suspect number one.” He slapped a hand over his phantasmal mouth, suddenly realizing he should not have said what he just said, but the damage was done. The room exploded into voices.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Reese did </span>
  <em>
    <span>what?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Clark, what the fuck!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh my God, I’m so so so sorry.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley was frozen, her mouth suddenly not working. So that’s what happened to Clark. It made sense, looking back, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>how </span>
  </em>
  <span>could she have…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Riley looked up again, Annleigh was standing up, an unreadable expression on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I swear on my life it was an accident,” Reese was pleading as she slowly got to her feet. “I had just found Farrah and I thought he was the person who had killed her and it was dark and oh my God I’m so sorry Annleigh, I didn’t mean to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Honestly, Annleigh, I forgave her, okay? It’s okay. We had a whole heart-to-heart and we didn’t think it would be a good idea because you’d hate her—” Clark jumped in but Annleigh wasn’t having it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Maybe she’s a bitch and deserves to be hated, did you think of that?,” Annleigh spat and the room went deathly quiet</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Annleigh,” Clark said, voice breaking as he reached out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m leaving.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So the next time there were monsters to be banished, the squad was not on their A-game, to say the least.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley was with Reese—nobody else wanted to partner up with her. Murderers stick together, Riley had thought grimly, but there was a clear difference between her and Reese. An accident versus two carefully thought out executions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creature was something of the shadows, laughing as it shaped the darkness and contorted the light. When Riley caught a glimpse of it, she saw large, grasping hands, and a smile wide and jagged like a child’s bogeyman come to life.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The fight was bad. Annleigh was angry, and fought without regard for anyone else. Kate and Chess and Farrah all had their minds elsewhere, and Clark was almost apathetic for once in his life. Everybody was tripping up and the cacophony of shrieking laughter mixed with confused shouts felt like absolute nonsense.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hurry it up, Riley!” Annleigh snapped, firing a shot into nothing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley didn’t give her a response, just tried to focus on where the monster was, but it moved in the blink of an eye, melting into the darkness and jumping out behind her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There! It had stopped moving for just a moment, and Riley started the mantra, feeling the hellish energy of the creature as the words fell from her mouth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shit! Mattie’s down!” Kate shouted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her concentration broke. The freshman had a gash on her torso, and dark blood was soaking into her shirt at an alarming rate.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Get it out of here, Riley!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we call an ambulance?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where the hell did it go?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riley! Come on!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Reese had left Riley’s side to go to Mattie, and Cairo took her place. “Come on, you’ve got this,” Cairo said, but her eyes betrayed her doubts. She took Riley’s hand in her own. “I know you’ve got this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley looked away with a lump in her throat. If it was just her life on the line, maybe she would just give up. Break down in Cairo’s arms and cry because she wasn’t good enough—never good enough. But Mattie was so full of youth and happiness. The rest of the squad, too, they needed the rest of their lives. Riley had taken away so much from them. She couldn’t let her inaction or inability take any more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley spoke the mantra, but the moment the last syllable came out, already imbued by the blood spilling from fresh wounds, something grabbed Cairo and tore her away from her. Riley fell to the ground from the force and when she looked up, she felt every last ounce of hope and optimism in her body extinguish.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creature with its serrated teeth was cackling in dark glee as Hell opened up to take it. The last thing Riley saw was Cairo reaching out for her, the fear on her face, a scream tearing from her throat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then the portal closed.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>dude we finally got some monsterhunting! sorry 4 the cliffhanger I'll try not to take more than four months for the next chapter lmfao</p>
<p>as always hmu @mightymightytigers on tumblr !!!! somehow im still invested in this musical.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>truths are revealed. feelings are realized. riley makes a decision.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sorry about the short-ish chapter, but hey, at least it only took like three weeks!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Riley stared at the space Cairo disappeared, trying to comprehend. Refusing to comprehend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rest of the world didn’t pause for her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Call nine-one-one, she needs real medical help,” Eva was saying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are we going to tell them?” Annleigh fretted as she pulled out her phone and dialled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll figure it out but first we need to make sure she’s going to be okay,” Eva decided, removing her jacket and pressing it to the wound to slow the bleeding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kate held Mattie’s limp head in her lap, and Chess laid a comforting cold hand on her back. “We’re not adding another ghost to the crew, got it, Mattie?” Farrah and Clark shared worried looks and Reese was standing a small ways away, torn between trying to help and chancing Annleigh’s wrath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley’s stomach lurched at the thought of losing the freshman, but she could still feel the ghost of Cairo’s hand in hers and that filled her whole body with a bleak emptiness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It took Cairo,” she whispered. Then, louder, “It took Cairo.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The others looked her way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean, it took Cairo?” Eva asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean,” Riley continued and forced the lump in her throat down. “That it dragged Cairo into Hell with it. She’s gone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fuck.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A somber silence fell over the group, save for Annleigh’s quiet but urgent conversation with 911.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’ll be okay,” Riley began to ramble because it was easier to hold back tears when she was talking. “Once Mattie’s in the hospital and stable we’ll do some research and figure out how to go and get her back. It’ll be fine. Everything will be okay.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riley…” Kate started and trailed off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sure there’s something in that book, right? Of course there is!” Riley filled in the silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Maybe we all need a break from this,” Kate continued finally. “It’s like… I never thought any of us would actually get hurt. We should take a step back. Reconsider.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Riley got to her feet, head fuzzy and her legs trembling from strain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eva glanced between them. “Kate’s right. We can try to figure out if we can get Cairo back, but none of us are on our A-game. Obviously.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>to,” Riley insisted. This was all she had to convince herself she was making things better. “Kate, </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>were the one who wanted to start going after monsters in the first place! How can you just want to stop?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kate spat, “Seeing that thing rip open one of my friends, that’s how.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sure, but… But there were still creatures everywhere. They would go on killing people and terrorizing people and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Cairo was gone </span>
  </em>
  <span>and they </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed </span>
  </em>
  <span>to go after her. “We have to get Cairo back! Leaving her behind is good as killing her ourselves!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s rich, coming from you, isn’t it?” Farrah scoffed. Riley’s heart stopped. God, not now, please. Anytime but now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Farrah,” Chess warned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Annleigh, finally done with the phone call, glanced between them suspiciously. “What do you mean?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean,” Farrah went on bitterly, “That Riley killed us and it was no big deal, and now that it’s Cairo who’s dead she wants to blame everyone else. News flash, it’s all </span>
  <em>
    <span>your </span>
  </em>
  <span>fault, so shut the fuck up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And that was the crux of it, right? All her fault. Anything that happened to the squad during these fights were her fault, because she had brought the monsters into their world, because she had killed Farrah and Chess, because she had to be perfect and so did the team.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I tried to fix it,” Riley said and felt the hollowness of her words as they spilled out. “I’m trying to fix it.” She looked up at the shocked and angry faces of her friends (if she could call them that anymore) and realized they were all heavily armed. That would be a way to go out, wouldn’t it?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jesus fucking Christ. Get the hell out of here before somebody does something they regret,” Kate said, barely holding back her anger.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Numbly, Riley left. It felt like the end.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>To her surprise, no police showed up at her door to drag her off to prison in the following days, so Riley spent her days and nights locked in her room, painstakingly running pages and pages of the ancient tome through Google Translate, searching for any kind of clue. It had been so much easier with Eva and Kate here to help her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Too bad she’d fucked everything up months ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her school attendance was screwed. She’d have hell to pay when her parents came back from whatever trip they were on, but it felt like the least of her worries. Perfection was supposed to be her only goal, drilled into her enough that anything less was world-crushing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley’s resentment to this only grew.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why did she have to be the best? Why wasn’t it </span>
  <em>
    <span>enough </span>
  </em>
  <span>to just </span>
  <em>
    <span>be?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Of course it wasn’t an excuse—there was no excuse for murder—but her mind felt like a pressure cooker sometimes, primed and ready to explode at the drop of a pin. And all that somebody had to do was let her talk it out, scream it out, if she had to, and maybe things would have been better. She should have asked for that. Cairo would have listened, if she had seriously asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>God, Cairo.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley closed the book and rubbed her eyes. A lump built in her throat and before she knew it she was sobbing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’d taken Cairo for granted. All those days and nights when she’d supported Riley endlessly, trying her best to keep from spiralling, not knowing how deeply the trauma went. Hours spent together doing homework or watching stupid teen dramas, when Riley’s heart would race and some unnamed emotion would make her stomach do backflips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley knew what it was. She didn’t want to. It made everything hurt tenfold because looking back, maybe Cairo felt the same. Maybe their time together was up, and neither of them ever said anything about it. Maybe Cairo was dead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She couldn’t be. Riley couldn’t accept that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a spark of electricity in her fingertips, familiar and foreign all at once. She hadn’t felt it since that first day when she’d bought the book. With unearned confidence, she opened the book to a random page, and there it was. A ritual to send her into Hell.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>One morning—or afternoon, or evening, she wasn’t really keeping track anymore—a half-familiar chill washed over her as she read over the ritual for the thousandth time. Riley would have gone immediately, but the rational part of her mind won out and told her to prepare. So, when the ghostly form of Clark phased into her room, she was there to see him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry for not knocking,” Clark said. Riley opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. “I thought you might tell me to go away if I did.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley finally found her words. “What are you doing here?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well. Nobody else is willing to check up on you,” Clark admitted honestly. Riley sighed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. Not surprised. I can’t believe they didn’t send the cops after me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Clark shrugged. “They have enough on their plate with Mattie right now, and none of them want to go through questioning again. Farrah’s angry about it, though.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fuck. Mattie. “How is she doing? Mattie, I mean?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Better,” Clark sat down on the bed. “She’s not going to die, at least, but… It wasn’t looking good for a while there. We even talked about asking you if there was anything that could help her in that book.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I bet nobody was fond of that option,” Riley muttered and fiddled with a corner of the page.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You did </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill </span>
  </em>
  <span>two of them,” Clark said with surprising vigor. Riley flinched back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know. I know. God, I know,” she sighed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Clark frowned, calming down. “Sorry. You don’t need that right now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t apologize. It’s not like I don’t deserve it.” Riley didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified when Clark nodded in agreement. She decided on a healthy mix of both.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Clark peered at what Riley was reading, then looked back up at her. “So you’re going after Cairo?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Riley insisted and pulled the book closer to her. “I have to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He pursed his lips. “Riley, Mattie was </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>bad, and that was on Earth. You don’t know if Cairo’s still alive, and I don’t think she would want you to die trying to save her.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>to,” Riley repeated. “It’s like… How many monsters do I have to send back to Hell to make up for what I did? How many bugs do I have to take outside instead of crushing them? How many times do I have to swerve to avoid a chipmunk on the road? How many little lives do I have to save to make up for the two I took?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And I know it’s not the same. It’s impossible for squirrels and ants and strangers to fix what I took from Chess and Farrah, and from everyone who loved them. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know </span>
  </em>
  <span>that, and I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know </span>
  </em>
  <span>it was my fault, but I can actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>fix </span>
  </em>
  <span>this one. If there’s any chance that Cairo’s alive then I have to go after her. And—”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Clark interrupted her. “Making mistakes doesn’t mean your own life is worthless. Even if the mistakes are as big as yours.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And wouldn’t you want to go after Annleigh, if it was her, instead?” Riley pressed on. It was Clark’s turn to be speechless. “It’s a non-question. Of course you would. Shit, Clark, I mean, I think—I’m in love with her.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay.” Clark said after a long pause as he leaned back. “I won’t try to talk you out of it anymore. Just be careful.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was that. Clark left with nothing more than a murmured </span>
  <em>
    <span>good luck </span>
  </em>
  <span>and Riley was alone to finish her preparations.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She packed a bag full of food and water, two knives (though it made her sick to think about wielding them), first aid supplies and both the ritual book and her notebook, and prepared the ritual.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So this might be the last time Riley ever saw her room. It was full of memories, moments she’d rather forget and ones she wanted to remember forever. If she was lucky, maybe she’d be able to make more. If she wasn’t… Well, maybe that was okay, too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley finished the ritual circle, making one last sigil with her chalk and then tossing it aside. Immediately there was a thrumming of energy, like the electric shocks but deeper and heavier, and pulsing through the entire room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She read the incantation and closed her eyes as the world disappeared around her.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>can't believe this is the penultimate chapter...like i know it's been 7 months since i started this fic but it still feels like it came so fast. i plan on posting the final chapter before january, so be on the lookout!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>riley faces her demons</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Hell looked exactly like Riley thought it would.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were pillars of red fire, gritty black stone, an oppressive heat. Smog obscured anything in the distance, and all around her, she heard spine-chilling whispers and blood-curdling screams. It felt like there were eyes peering at her from every nook and cranny in the ragged rocky ground and the air was heavy with the stench of sulfur and something metallic that Riley was choosing to believe was not blood.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fuck, she was actually in Hell.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She’d sort of always thought she would end up here one day, especially after the murders, but never as viscerally real as this, and certainly not of her own volition.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley took a step forward and was immediately hit by a wave of fatigue. It wasn’t like what she had felt before, when she’d sent creatures back here. This was bone-deep exhaustion. Her muscles cried out as she tried to take another step, and she had a skull-splitting migraine. When she closed her eyes, she saw red-hot pain, and her ears were starting to ring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She forced herself through it. One step at a time. Just one foot in front of the other, and eventually she would get somewhere.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley hadn’t expected this to be easy. She hadn’t expected it to be this hard just to keep her consciousness. She leaned against a pillar of stone, wincing as the grit dug into her shoulder, and found one of the knives in her backpack. All the noises around were doing nothing to assuage her fears of getting attacked. Though the weight of the blade in her hand felt like ten thousand tons (emotionally and physically), it made her feel just the slightest bit safer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She pressed on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was no plan or strategy. Riley had no real ideas, just that if Cairo wasn’t where she was, then she would go somewhere else. It was stupid and it was all she had.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The day wore on. The fog and smoke remained in the air, and the uneven ground rolled onwards and onwards and onwards. Riley stopped on occasion to drink water, even though the terrible smell of the place made it taste like ash. For wandering around actual, literal Hell, she thought she was doing okay.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And as soon as she thought it, everything fell apart. She had to stop jinxing these things.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The smog warped, and a flash of orange light blinded Riley for a moment. She held out her knife, pointing it towards where the light originated from.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Back off,” she warned and hoped that she sounded more confident than she felt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley couldn’t fight by herself. She rarely actually touched any of the monsters the squad fought, just stayed out of the way and did her </span>
  <em>
    <span>magic bullshit, </span>
  </em>
  <span>as they called it. It was painfully evident that she had no idea what she was doing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She did research on the best place to stab somebody to kill them quickly. The femoral artery was king, but harder to reach, so the second best might be the aorta. It moved a lot of blood, and just nicking it could prove fatal if medical attention didn’t come fast enough. Sever it completely and there wasn’t anything anybody could do. Unconsciousness would come in about a minute, and death soon after that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>How fucked up was it that she remembered that and could recite it with ease, and yet face off against something—not even a </span>
  <em>
    <span>person </span>
  </em>
  <span>this time—and not know what to do? Have her hands shake enough that she was afraid she’d drop the knife?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The orange light blinked from the corner of her eye. Riley whipped around to face it. The fog shifted again, and this time she saw a faint silhouette.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It rushed towards her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley saw claws and teeth, and that was all. She threw herself out of its way and it snarled as it skidded to a halt and turned back on her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Smells fresh,” it said. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>said. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Its voice grated on her ears, somewhere between nails on a chalkboard and a child whining. If anything, Riley smelled like sweat, but that wasn’t really the point.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creature laughed, its throat billowing out with each noise, not unlike a toad, but it flashed with light each time. Riley glanced down at its claws. They could butcher her. All it would take was one good strike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They stared at each other for a moment longer before the creature lunged again, all gnashing teeth and slobber. Riley stumbled to her right. Not fast enough. Blood started to run in rivulets down her arm. Riley bit her tongue to hold in a cry. The thing didn’t let up. It snapped its jaws at her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley slashed out with the knife as the creature pounced on her. There was no tearing of flesh, no sickening cry, no screaming for help—just pain as she was knocked to the ground. Her eyesight went dark for half of a second. Claws were digging into her chest. Digging in uncomfortably close to her throat. Pain became a tangible thing, unfathomably real.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creature was laughing, croaking, same thing. It pressed more weight down. Riley screamed when its claws scraped against her collarbones. There was only white-hot agony. Everything else was a distant memory.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley’s hand found the knife. She hadn’t even realized she’d been looking for it. The instinct to defend herself took over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She stabbed forward, drove the blade through the blinding light in its throat mid-croak (it popped with a sickening splat) and into its body. A viscous orange goop flowed from the wound and the creature became dead weight over her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley sobbed as she barely managed to throw it off of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her body ached. She was tired and bleeding profusely and crying and she’d been a fool to think she could do this.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She dragged herself to lean against a rocky embankment. It was a slow movement, barely making a foot of progress before her arms gave out and she had to rest there in pain until she could try again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Was this what it felt like, she wondered as she laid there, when Chess and Farrah were dying? The blood soaking their clothes and the ground, the utter pain slowly replaced by fear and sadness, the blurring of vision until it all went black?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was going to die down here, and nobody was going to care. Not the squad. Not her family. Not even Cairo, if she was still alive and ever got out. Not after she finds out what Riley did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, God.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley needed to bandage herself if she had any chance of survival. Moving around hurt like a bitch, but it was necessary. She knew how bad blood loss could be. Seen and caused it first hand. After that, though, she just closed her eyes, half expecting to never open them again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It must’ve been hours until she did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley’s lungs burned as she inhaled deeply. The air was thick with the stench of her own blood and smoke.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Took you long enough,” somebody said. Riley’s head whipped up (bad idea; it sent a spike of pain straight through her skull) to see a figure sitting cross-legged in front of her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck?” Riley coughed. “Who are you?” She glanced towards the knife, uselessly laying far out of reach, the smog already partially obscuring it. She began to reach for her backpack for the other one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t go for the knife,” the figure said disdainfully. “What do you think you’d do to me? I’m not quite as solid as that thing.” It gestured to the creature, which had started to decay into a pile of steaming orange waste. “Impressive, by the way. Didn’t think you would have it in you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley hadn’t, either. The figure reminded her of a shadow cast by candlelight, flickering in and out of focus, not able to take a stable form. “Who are you?” she repeated, but didn’t keep going for the knife.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just a ghost,” it said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t look like the ones I’ve seen.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, all three of them,” the ghost scoffed and sat up. “A lot of us were pissed when you took them back. Me included.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley blinked. “I had to make up for my mistakes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, fat load of good that did you. All your friends hate you now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ghost laughed. “Well, if anybody still loved me, I wouldn’t willingly walk into Hell.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There’s more mistakes I need to fix,” Riley defended herself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have you ever considered that it wasn’t really a mistake? Any of it?” the ghost continued. “Maybe it was supposed to be this way. It had to be this way. That’s what you thought, wasn’t it? The only solution.” Riley grit her teeth and didn’t give it the dignity of a response. “Aw, done talking?” The ghost tilted its head at her. “That’s okay. You’re not going anywhere anytime soon.” It vanished without a trace, and Riley felt like she could breathe again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley couldn’t go anywhere, it had been right about that. She could barely drag herself anywhere, let alone stand. If she’d been able to go to a hospital she would need stitches and a blood transfusion, but all she had were gauze bandages and a dwindling sense of hope. She ate an energy bar, took a couple sips of water, and tried to stay as still as possible.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Time passed, somewhere between an hour and an eternity, and then the ghost returned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you really think Cairo loves you?” Riley lurched forward, only stopped by the sudden pain it brought her. She didn’t even wonder how the ghost knew that name. “She </span>
  <em>
    <span>puts up with you. </span>
  </em>
  <span>I bet getting dragged down here was a relief, and you’re going after her? It’s pathetic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t say that,” Riley growled. “She’s my best friend.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She hates you,” the ghost hissed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Riley insisted. “We go through rough patches, but I know she doesn’t. She—I mean, you seem to know everything else about my life, so don’t you know how much she cares? Even when I ignore her. I was such a shitty friend and she still cared.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ghost was quiet. “I think she hates you,” it said finally.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know </span>
  </em>
  <span>she doesn’t. Not yet.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ghost paced around. Riley was envious. Her own body still ached, and she itched to keep moving. Soon the ghost disappeared again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The days-slash-eternities passed by much the same. Riley ate and drank, changed bandages, wondered if she would die, and the ghost spoke to her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you think your parents have noticed you’re missing yet?” it asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Riley said. “Probably not. You know,” she scoffed, “I spent so much of my life trying to please them. Get good grades, become the captain, be the best. And I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>good, </span>
  </em>
  <span>I was, and it was never enough for them. Slowly dying in Hell puts that in perspective.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They’re your parents. You have to do right by them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do I?” Riley shot back. The ghost seemed shocked, but Riley had no idea how she knew that. It wasn’t like it really had a face. Maybe she was just projecting. “I mean, they’re always gone. They never do anything for me except put pressure on my back, and when I still push on, they don’t care. It’s stupid. I wish I didn’t care.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Think they’ll enjoy knowing their daughter is a murderer? Maybe it’ll be a kick in the gut. Or a knife in the gut, huh? Make them feel like shit for once.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley frowned deeply. “No.” The ghost sighed and the conversation ended.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As time passed, Riley barely felt any better. It still hurt to move and when she tried to stand it felt like she was moments away from collapsing. Call it a miracle or call it dumb luck that she wasn’t dead, but that was where the fortune ended. If something attacked her now, she was sure she would be a goner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She considered going home. She could. She had a ring in her backpack with a ruby that she took from her mother’s jewelry box before she left; her one ticket back to Earth. If she used it now, she could come back to Hell, but never go back again unless she could find a pure enough ruby somewhere else.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t go home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you remember how it felt to kill them?” the ghost asked in lieu of a greeting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Riley answered. It was hard not to. The give of their skin under the blade, the warm pulse of their blood over her hands. It was so vivid a memory and for a second when she glanced down, she almost thought the red stains were from them, not her own wounds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They screamed,” the ghost said. “Man, they screamed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” she whispered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you regret it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s not true.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley stared up at the flickering figure. “What?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It stared back down at her. “You’re lying. You thought it was fun.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I—”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You thought it was therapeutic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>did!” </span>
  </em>
  <span>the ghost screamed, pointing a ghastly finger at her face. “You saw their faces. You liked their fear. It made you feel powerful. When you twisted the knife deeper and the screams finally died off, you liked it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut the fuck up!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Accept it!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t know me!” Riley shouted. Her face was wet—she hadn’t realized tears had begun to roll down her cheeks. “You don’t get to say that shit to me!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I don’t know you?” the ghost sneered. “Then how do I know all this? You know I’m right.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was. In those moments, she felt like hunters must feel when they shoot down a buck, like a diver must feel when they execute a flawless jump. Chasing perfection even in murder and goddamn, she had achieved it. “I hate you,” Riley said, angry and quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You hate me?” the ghost laughed. “That’s rich. Haven’t you figured it out yet?” Riley glared at it. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>you, asshole. Where the fuck did you think all your blood went in those banishing rituals? Did you think there were no consequences? You </span>
  <em>
    <span>put </span>
  </em>
  <span>me here and now you have the audacity to deny that I was ever part of you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t want you,” Riley said, shutting her eyes as if it would let her avoid the truth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tough luck, because you’re only part of a person right now. All the headaches, the fatigue? I feel it too. It hurts me, too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You aren’t me,” she insisted forcefully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There isn’t really a </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>and a </span>
  <em>
    <span>me. </span>
  </em>
  <span>It’s an </span>
  <em>
    <span>us.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re—</span>
  <em>
    <span>We’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> dying here and our fucked up life is out there. And I am as much of you as anything else, no matter how shitty that feels, okay? Can’t we finally fucking accept that so we can try to move on? Try to heal?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley put her face in her hands. She wanted to throw up and lay down and die and wake up like it was all a bad dream. The ghost of her was right. All of the ugliness and the bad decisions and doubts, it was still her. It was more painful than anything to realize and keep on realizing forever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ghost reached out its hand. Her hand. Riley sobbed as she reached to take it and gasped, choking on nothing, coughing like she was trapped in a burning building, the smoke forcing the oxygen from her lungs until—</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Until she wasn’t anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley dry heaved, spitting onto the gritty ground. It took almost a minute for her to notice that yes, she was still hurting, but in a dull ache rather than a sharp pain. She unraveled the bandages across the clawmarks on her collarbone and almost cried out in shock when she felt scar tissue instead of barely-scabbed wounds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She felt… different. She felt a scramble of stormy thoughts in her head, a shadow she hadn’t realized she had lost, but it belonged there. She felt more whole.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley stood, slowly in case she wasn’t actually as healthy as she thought, but there was only a faint buzz of dizziness. She could keep looking. She couldn’t give up yet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Holy shit. Riley?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley’s heart caught in her throat as she turned to face the voice, scarcely daring to believe it. It couldn’t be that easy. Not that facing the ghost of herself had been </span>
  <em>
    <span>easy, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Cairo,” she breathed. Cairo ran towards her, wrapped her up in her arms before Riley could actually react.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you real?” Cairo whispered as she pulled away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you?” Riley replied and reveled in Cairo's laughter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, it doesn’t fucking feel like it. Hell, huh? We’re in Hell. Always knew we’d be here together eventually.” Riley smiled despite herself, and oh, fuck, was she really starting to cry again? She had never cried this much before. Cairo’s eyes started to water, too, and she pulled her in for another hug. Riley tucked her head into the crook of Cairo’s neck. She had been all-too-aware of the possibility she would never do that again. “You’re a fucking idiot for coming here, though.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I couldn’t believe you might be dead,” Riley hiccuped and held her closer. “It was so stupid but I had to come after you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It takes a lot more than a couple devils to kill me,” she promised. “Did you really think I wouldn’t destroy this whole goddamn world to get back to you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley unwound her arms from around Cairo, raising her hands to wipe away tears from her friend’s cheeks instead. They stood there with their foreheads pressed together, quietly crying but finally together again. That was what mattered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The reunion was cut short by the chattering howls of something sinister in the smog.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you have a way home?” Cairo asked, already pulling a knife—no, something’s claw with a hilt of torn cloth—from her belt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Riley said and scrambled for her backpack. Buried beneath food and water bottles, down at the bottom, there it was: a sparkling ruby set into a silver ring. She grabbed her notebook and flipped to the last page she wrote in, where she scribbled the returning ritual.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The creatures were getting closer. Among the noises was the horrible croaking of the thing that had attacked Riley before. It only spurred her to work faster. She took the ring, recited the words, and a flaming red portal erupted from the disintegrating gem. It was horribly reminiscent of the ritual she’d done that got them into this mess in the first place.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s go!” Riley shouted. She was just a step behind Cairo as they tripped over themselves to get through the doorway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Just like that, and they were out, standing in the undisturbed silence of Riley’s room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Cairo threw herself down onto Riley’s bed and Riley herself followed suit, albeit more carefully. The immediate danger was past, Cairo was safe and alive and home, and that meant that sooner or later the truth was going to come out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Right then, Riley wanted nothing more than to hold her; her whole body ached with wanting to be close to her. She wanted to exist in this little bubble where nothing was wrong, where nobody was dead, where they were just two more teenagers in the world trying to deal with boring high school drama. But that was impossible.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I need to tell you something,” Riley said. “It’s not good. I think you’re going to hate me and I don’t want that but it’s okay if you do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not going to hate you,” Cairo interjected. Riley smiled sadly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You might.” She shifted to look at the ceiling as Cairo took her hand. “Just let me finish before you say anything.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was it, then. The whole truth, from the start, nothing held back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Riley took a deep breath and began.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>ohhh man i can't believe this fic is over. this au has lived in my head rent free for more than half a year and the fic is actually done.</p>
<p>i am in no way, shape or form done with this au though! i will still be writing b-sides and perhaps other spinoffs, too, because i am still obsessed with it.</p>
<p>thank you so much for being along for the ride, it means a lot &lt;3 &lt;3 &lt;3 as always i am @mightymightytigers on tumblr, feel free to send me random shit, headcanons, fic prompts... it's always fun to hear from people!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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